A Second Chance
by PaperSky95
Summary: It's been 6 months since Pete left Tazusa and she just can't function right with out him. Its virtually the same thing with Pete up in Heaven. God notices and decides to reincarnate Pete back into Earth, but there's just a slight problem...*ABANDONED*.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

Disclaimer: I don't own Ginban or any other of my favorite animes. But I obviously DO own the plot!

Chapter 1:

Snow fell lightly at Tazusa's feet as she walked through the sidewalks leading to her home. It had been six months since Pete left her and she just couldn't go back to the way life was without him. He had melted her icy demeanor and cooled her fiery personality. It was because of him that she had lost her mask of clay and changed her opinion about skating. It wasn't just a competitive sport; it was a way to express yourself and expressions were not meant to be hidden.

She had been trying to live normally; after all, she had gone through a life with out the cheery Canadian before. But until now, every time she looked at herself in a mirror she half-expected to see Pete grinning back at her. Every time she ate tomatoes she could just imagine him screaming in her head. And most of all every time she performed in the rink she pretended that Pete was still with her, enjoying every jump and swerve she made.

The dark haired skater didn't want to live like this, she knew that Pete would have wanted her to always be happy and remember all that he had taught her about feelings. But that was just it; she would always remember his smile, his laugh, his jokes and most of all his passion for that moment of flight that they had always felt on the ice.

Sighing she looked up at the sky and whispered to herself, "God, why did you send him to be with me just to tear us apart?" There was no reply. Of course, why would there be? She had asked this question hundreds of times and each attempt just made her feel worse. The only reason that she kept asking was because of the faint hope that somewhere up there, Pete was listening. She closed her eyes for a while and tried to hold back the sadness, then after a few moments she took a deep breath and made her way back home.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**HEAVEN**

_She's almost cried again, _Pete thought to himself. He groaned and got up from his crouched position. In doing so he was faced with the unavoidable view of the Gates of Heaven. _Six months, _he thought again, _six months I've been up here and all I can do is watch her suffer the pain that I've caused her._

The Canadian pilot felt the familiar surge of anger at the God that had thrown them together only to rip them apart. He didn't have any problem with heaven; it was the very embodiment of the word "peace". It was like a giant town, a town where everyone was an angel and had once been human. Yet no matter who he asked, or how much he did, he never came across a person who had gone through the same thing as he had. No one else had been thrown back to Earth for a hundred days to haunt and posses a living human. So no matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't go back to Tazusa.

A loud call interrupted Pete's thoughts and he turned to see a Tenshi fluttering towards him. Despite his bad mood, Pete smiled. The Tenshi were God's personal messengers and they seemed to erase all bad feelings within a five meter radius.

Fluttering closer, the Tenshi landed on Pete's outstretched hand, barely fitting into his palm. It looked like a cross between a cotton ball and a rabbit. The entire body was just a ball of fluffy white fur and the only extremities were a pair of large hind paws, two floppy ears, a long tail that ended in a puff and a couple of pearly feathered wings.

"Pete!" it squeaked. Said person smiled again, no one new where Tenshi's mouths were. When they spoke the high-pitched voice seemed to come from around them instead of from a specific place on their body. And they apparently didn't eat, instead feeding on the happy feelings that came from people's hearts.

"Pete!!" it squeaked again, brining Pete back out of his thoughts.

"Oh, yes sorry…" he murmured. "What's wrong? You seem to be fluttering around a little to fast to just be on a stroll."

"It's big news, Pete!" it chirped excitedly. "God says he wants to see you, Pete, and he _never_ asks to see people. He only does it if he's planning a reincarnation!"

Pete almost fainted. Most souls in heaven had to be there for decades before they were chosen to be reincarnated; then again he wasn't like most souls. Taking a deep breath he cleared his head and looked back at the Tenshi. "Are you absolutely sure that God is picking me, a spirit who's only been here for half a year, to reincarnate and send back to Earth?"

The Tenshi couldn't frown, since it didn't have a mouth, but it's puffy white fur bristled like there was no tomorrow at the insult. "I'll have you know that Tenshi have never gotten a single message or delivery wrong in all of eternity!" And with that it bounced off Pete's hand towards the direction of the palace where God lived.

Pete rushed to follow. He kept half of his mind on following the Tenshi and let the other half wander on thoughts of Earth. He would be able to live again, to feel, to touch. Then something occurred to him. Reincarnations were normally wiped clean of their memories, leaving only the personality of the past life in the new one. Never before has a soul retained its memories of its past life, but still never before had a soul shared a body with a living human girl for a hundred days. Pete clenched his fists, making a promise to himself that he would not forget Tazusa, if no one had done it before than he would.

He stopped walking. They had come to the palace door and the Tenshi had busied itself with opening it. Tenshi floated a foot away from the door and started to glow, pulses of light emanated from its body. Then after a few seconds of glowing Pete heard a loud click and the Tenshi let itself fall to the floor then rested itself on its long tail. "Alright Pete, go in."

_Ok, Pete calm down,_ he thought to himself, _you're just going to talk to the most powerful entity in the known universe. There's no need to be scared._

Past the first two doors Pete saw that there was a hallway that lead strait to a pedestal. Assuming that he was supposed to stand on that pedestal, the blonde haired teenager straightened up and walked over to it. Once he was on the pedestal a booming voice echoed throughout the hall.

"Pete Pumps I have summoned you here today for a reason. This reason has a relation to the girl you inhabited when you first died."

Pete tensed, was something wrong with Tazusa?

God seemed to read his mind as he answered, "I had sent you to her previously so as to thaw out her heart. There are great things in store for her and the only thing hindering her from achieving what she was meant for is her yearning to be with you once again. So I have come up with a solution."

_Here it is_, he said to himself excitedly.

"I'm sending you back to Earth as this," God said revealing a mirror that Pete had not noticed before.

Pete craned his neck to look at what was reflected on the mirror and he paled.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me…"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Disclaimer: I still dont own it and probably never will...sigh

Chapter 2:

As soon as Tazusa got home she noticed something different. One, the front gate was open which normally never happened so they could keep reporters out. And two, her Coach's car was halfway through the drive way and everyone seemed to be crowding around something in front of it. Surprisingly though the reporters didn't seem that interested at whatever was in front of the car and started walking out the front gates to get home, apparently deciding that nothing interesting would happen today anyway.

Fighting her way through the sea of reporters, Tazusa went over to her Coach and asked, "Coach, what's with the guilty look on your face?" Looking down, she saw the cause of all the commotion.

The car had a dent mark on its fender and it was from hitting something, something that had been sitting in the middle of the street when Coach had arrived, and that something was lying on the driveway. The little lump of fur didn't seem to be moving and moving closer, Tazusa saw that it was a puppy.

"Aww, Coach don't tell me you ran over a puppy." Tazusa teased as she bent to try to wake the puppy which she saw was a boy. The color of his fur was painfully familiar; it was the same golden color of Pete's hair. As soon as Tazusa had touched it the puppy immediately opened his eyes and looked straight at Tazusa. She gasped at the puppy's gaze, it was the same powdery blue that Pete's had been.

"Oh, it's alive!" Coach cried out in relief, jolting Tazusa from her shock.

Yoko, the ever-observant, noticed her sisters spaced out expression and asked, "Hey, sis what's wrong? You seem a little more air headed than usual."

"Huh?" she replied absent-mindedly. "Oh, it's nothing…um what're we gonna do about the dog?" as soon as she said that the puppy leaped onto her lap and started licking her face. "Hey! You lump of fur, get off!" but no matter how much Tazusa pushed the dog away it just got back up and slobbered her with its version of kisses.

"Sis, I think it likes you." Yoko said grinning. "From what I know that breed's a Golden retriever. How old do you think it is Coach?"

"Well for one thing it's a boy, that's for sure." Coach pointed out. "And judging from its size it looks like it's around 6 moths old."

"Yea, whatever!" Tazusa screamed above the yips the puppy was giving her. "Can you help me get this crazy thing off now?!"

"I'm not sure if we should do that forcibly…"Coach said while he tried to stare the dog off. After a while he gave up and noticed something. "Yoko, why are you holding a ladle?"

"Well I was cooking dinner before I came out here." her face brightened at something. "Hey do you think it'll get of Tazusa if we let it lick the sauce off this ladle?"

"It's worth a try, what is that stuff anyway?" Coach inquired as he glanced at the red paste that was threatening to drip of the ladle.

"Tomato soup!"

At those two words the dog froze and stared at Yoko. "Oh, look I think it understands that we want to feed it. This just might work!" she said as she moved the ladle closer to the dog.

The idea worked, just in a different way. Instead of getting off Tazusa to get to the ladle, the dog scampered away like the soup was acid. Coach and Yoko stared at each other with confused looks as the puppy cowered meters away from them. But Tazusa's mouth almost hit the ground. _It acts just like Pete!_, she thought to herself.

"Well I guess we should keep it for the night." Coach mumbled.

"What?!" Tazusa screamed.

"There's no need to overreact." Coach said sternly. "There's no way we're leaving a puppy out in the cold tonight to freeze to death."

"But Coach," Yoko whined. "The puppy will pee on everything! I'm the one on chore duty for this week!"

The puppy heard this and barked while he started jumping around the three of them. "Would someone get it to lie down or something?" Tazusa groaned.

At the sound of the command the puppy lied down and wagged its tail happily at the trio. "That's weird do you think it's trained?" Coach hypothesized.

"Let's check, sit!" Tazusa ordered.

It sat.

"Beg!"

It Begged.

"Roll over!"

It rolled like there was no tomorrow.

"I think we've established that it's trained." Yoko said.

"What're we going to call it though?" Coach thought out loud. "We can't just keep calling it dog.

"Pete." Tazusa whispered.

"What?" Coach asked.

"We're going to call this dog Pete."

"Er, alright then." Coach agreed. Tazusa was acting strange today but at least he didn't have to strain his mind trying to think of a name. "Let's get back in the house then."

As the trio of humans walked to the doors of the house the dog trotted at their heels. Somewhere behind a bush a small white ball of fluff hopped over to an open window in the Tazusa household and made its way inside.

Note: Well let's all try to guess who that dog really is :D


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

Disclaimer: Still don't own it and probably never will.

Chapter 3:

The first thing Pete noticed when he got back to Earth was that he could feel the ground; he hadn't felt or touched anything ever since he had died. The second thing that he noticed was that there was a large dented metal object looming in front of him. And the third thing he noticed was that everything around him seemed _huge_, and the crowd of people around him didn't help either.

"Argh" he grunted. But what came out of his mouth was more of a whimper than a grunt. This shocked Pete enough to get him to stand, or at least try to. He tried supporting himself by putting his left foot forward but found that he couldn't quite bend his leg that way. Then his head started pounding and he winced, he felt like something roughly the size of a boulder had hit him full on. Pete swayed and was surprised to find himself on all fours and amazingly comfortable with it. It was then that he noticed that his arms were coated in something that was the same color as his hair. The disgruntled Canadian lifted his hand to brush the coat of yellow away but stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed another thing. He wasn't raising a hand, he was raising a paw.

After a few dumbstruck moments Pete remembered his little chat with God and let out a low growl. It was small comfort that his mouth had finally done something it was told to do, compare to the giant mess that Pete had been dragged into…

**5 minutes ago in Heaven…**

"You want me to go back to Tazusa as that?!" Pete screamed in a not-so-manly way. "How is she supposed to recognize me?" a distressed tone was seeping out of every word in the sentence.

"She's not supposed to," God replied calmly. "That's the point.

"What's wrong?" Tenshi called as it slammed the doors open landing on the ground in a battle stance. "I heard some shouting!"

Pete almost laughed, then he remembered that along with being God's messengers the Tenshi were God's personal guards too. He had never seen a Tenshi fight, but if they were the ones assigned to guard Heaven then he guessed that there was more to the puff balls than they really showed.

"It's nothing, Tenshi." God assured. "Pete Pumps is just reacting to his new reincarnation, albeit a bit more dramatic than I expected."

"Well how can I _not_ be dramatic?" Pete fumed, forgetting that he was screaming at an omnipotent being. "You're sending me back to Earth, where you dumped me if you'll remember. And during that hundred day stay on Earth I fell in love with the girl you leeched me on to. Then, you took me back up here and leave me be for a few months. _Now_, you want to send me back to her as a freaking dog, with my memories still in tact and now way what so ever to communicate with her!?"

"Wait a moment Pete Pumps," God thundered, pouring authority into his voice. "I never said that you wouldn't have any means of communication."

"And so you're going to send a talking dog around to frolic on Earth?" Pete said, sarcasm dripping from every word.

"No, but you will have a way to communicate. But I will only reveal it to you when the need arises."

Pete fumed and was about to start another shouting, "Listen, if you want me to go down there alone and--"

"You're not going down there alone."

"I'm not?" Pete said dumbly.

"Of course not, you're going with Tenshi."

"Won't I stand out down there?" Tenshi squeaked.

"You're not exactly completely visible down there, now Pete do you agree to the reincarnation?"

"I guess I do…can I have some time to think about—"and for the second time that day Pete was interrupted. But this time it was by a giant hole engulfing him from below.

**Back to Earth**

The entire process of remembering the reincarnation made Pete sway. Then yet again he was on the ground spread eagle with his face, or rather, muzzle imbedded into the pavement. He groaned with the effort of trying to get up again and decided to stay down, until he felt something, or someone poke him. Then his nose picked something that smelled extremely familiar and caused his eyelids to shoot up. Then he saw Tazusa, and for a moment their eyes connected. It was like they had never been apart; she looked the same as she did that snowy day he left, just as beautiful as ever. Joy bubbled up inside him and Pete forgot all of his loathing towards God and jumped onto Tazusa.

"Hey! You lump of fur, get off!" she screamed.

The insult stung, but not enough to dampen Pete's mood of being able to stay close to her again. It didn't matter that he was a dog, as long as he could be near her then it was good enough, for now anyway.

Between his licks, which seemed to have come instinctively, he heard the crowd leaving and paused for a while to see that there were only three people around him now. One was Tazusa and the other two were the Coach and Yoko. They were talking about something but Pete didn't really care as long as they weren't pushing him off Tazusa. He was about to start slobbering Tazusa again when another scent hit his now-sensitive nose. Pete knew that scent all to well and automatically scampered away in absolute terror. _Tomatoes!_ Pete thought.

Through his fear, he managed to make out some parts of the humans' conversation, namely taking him into their home. His ears pricked up at the mention of this but drooped again after Yoko brought something up about him peeing on everything. Then an idea hit him and he barked. He wasn't that used to his new body yet but all he wanted to do was make noise and jump around, which thankfully was what he managed to do. Knowing Tazusa, she'll get so irritated with me that…

"Would someone get it to lie down or something?" Tazusa groaned.

_I knew it!_ And at the word, Pete flopped over and sprawled over yet again on the hard cement. The others noticed this and started shooting commands at him. Of course, since he understood every word they said, it was all just a matter of following them.

After a few more commands they were satisfied and started discussing his name. Then Tazusa said something that would add a bounce to Pete's step for the rest of the day.

"Pete." Tazusa whispered.

"What?" Coach asked.

"We're going to call this dog Pete."

"Er, alright then." Coach agreed.

Pete wagged his tail as hard as he could and followed the humans inside the house, pausing only to look back at a bush and give a short yip at it. Tenshi bounced out of the bush and stared at Pete. The reincarnate flicked his tail at an open window and watched as Tenshi bounced over to it. Pleased with himself, despite being a quadruped, he trotted into the home he was so familiar with. The only thing that had gone wrong in his return to Earth was the unconventional way that they had discovered his gender…

Note: Hurrah for that ending sentence :D! I know I'm not that good at fluff or romance, but it's all my 13-year old mind can do right now, so read and review (if my reviews could reach 10 that'd be motivating...)!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Note: In all finallity I have returned! I'm sorry for the freakishly long gap, but this story's unusually writer's block prone for some reason. That and school, typhoons, and yea... oh well on to the story!

Chapter 4:

Everything in the house was as Pete remembered it. From the furniture and walls to the innumerable number of skating magazines strewn across every thinkable surface, nothing had really changed from his last stay in the Sakurano household. Or so he thought.

"By the way Tazusa, Kei's up in your room waiting for you." Coach said casually.

Pete froze abruptly. Who was this _Kei_? Why was he in Tazusa's room? Why was he waiting for Tazusa? And most importantly, why did Yoko have to keep swinging around that tomato coated soup ladel?!

"He's been up there for quite a while Sis," Yoko informed. "says that he's got something new for you."

"He does?" Tazusa asked, her face brightening (much to Pete's dismay). "It's about time he came up with something new. I've been getting tired of the old set he gave me." Turning to Pete she smiled and crooned, "Come on boy, you're gonna meet a good friend of mine."

Pete forced his tail to do a half-hearted wag as they climbed the stairs to Tazusa's room. _When I see this guy I'm going to bite his head off. Wait no, first I'll find out what he's doing with Tazusa, just to be a good person, and then I'll bite his head off. Or maybe I can pee on him, yea or maybe…_

While Pete was scheming on what to do about this new development, he and Tazusa had come to a stop in front of a wooden door that Pete remembered walking through so many times before.

"KEI!" Tazusa called through the door. "I'm gonna come in so my room better be how I left it or you're going to wish you never came!"

A loud scuffling sound came from the other side of the door and after a few minutes of calm waiting (something Pete had never seen before) from Tazusa, the door opened to reveal an aloof looking sixteen year-old.

"Hey there Tazusa!" he greeted cheerfully. Hearing a growling sound, the boy looked down to see Pete gnawing on his pants. "Hmm, I've never imagined you to be a pet person."

"I'm not," Tazusa said as she scooped up the snarling yellow demon that had ravaged his wrath on Kei's jeans. "This is sort of what we owe to the little fluff ball after Coach almost ran him over."

"Why do I find that so easy to imagine?" the boy, who apparently was Kei, joked. "Come in already so I can show you my new masterpiece."

"I don't need you to tell me if I can go into my own room, Kei Morrison." Tazusa huffed. "I was just waiting for your big head to deflate so I could pass."

"I have every right to be gloating after my last work won you your last competition. Now let's get inside already!" Kei said as he led Tazusa into the room.

Pete felt extremely cross. He didn't understand anything they were talking about and he had been relinquished of the pleasure of tearing up Kei's pants. He looked at Kei, properly this time, from his position in Tazusa's arms and felt his hackles rise. _This guy is definitely not full Japanese, _Pete thought while he further inspected the light haired youth in front of him.

Kei had a nest of messy auburn-gold locks that dangled in front of a pair of bright, periwinkle blue eyes. He was at least a head taller than Tazusa and seemed to measure a few inches under six feet. In a nutshell, this guy was as foreign looking as Pete was when he was alive. Yet his Japanese was fluent and there was little or no accent in it. Plus, his first name was Japanese. His last name on the other hand was completely and utterly foreign.

_American, _Pete decided. _Morrison seems like an American name to me, meaning that this guy over here has mixed blood. But then how would Tazusa meet a half-Japanese American? He doesn't exactly look to make friends in everyone she meets…_

Once again, Pete's thoughts were interrupted. This time by Tazusa unceremoniously dropping him on the bed and the bounce that followed as she herself plopped down to stare at the ceiling. "Alright Kei, let's hear that masterpiece of yours."

Smiling, Kei opened a large, black case on Tazusa's table and lifted a shining bronze colored trumpet from it. With a small yet exaggerated bow, he began. The music that he was playing was unlike anything Pete had heard before. It seemed unfamiliar, and being an aeronautic acrobat he had listened to a lot of music, could this guy be a composer? If he was, then Pete had to admit that he was a good one. The music was upbeat, lively and you didn't get tired of it after a few seconds of listening to it. But the best part to the music was that you could really _feel_ the joy that the musician felt as he was playing. Even in the foul mood Pete was in from meeting Kei, he couldn't fault his music.

When Kei finished he did another bow and raised his eyebrows questioningly at Tazusa. "Well, Ice Princess? How was that for a masterpiece?"

Tazusa smiled and sat up on her bed. "Maestro, it was as good as ever, perfect for a new routine and flawless as usual."

"Thank you, thank you," the blonde said as he took more exaggerated bows at his imaginary audience. "By the way Tazusa, what's the little demon's name?" he asked, pointing at Pete, who had started snarling again.

Tazusa hesitated a little then answered softly, "Pete."

Kei's joking grin disappeared and his face grew serious, "Pete? Isn't that the name of the guy who you told me left in Montreal?"

"Yes, it is. This dog reminds me of him in more ways than I can count, and Pete didn't leave me, I told you he got taken away."

"Right, sorry I forgot. He died right?" Kei mumbled apologetically.

"You could say that…" Tazusa croaked. She was starting to cry again. Why did this always happen every time she thought about him? Wait, why was she even asking? She knew why, it just hurt her to openly admit it. Seeing the dog, so much like Pete had reminded her of him. It wasn't so far fetched to think that the dog was Pete, at least not to her. The first time she met him had been like a fairy tale, who's to say the second time wouldn't be crazier?

Pete saw Tazusa cry and immediately launched another attack on Kei. He had made her cry! Pushing the fact that Tazusa had told Kei about him aside, Pete leaped. The blondie would pay for what he had done and Pete latched onto the white cotton shirt the offender was wearing.

Kei was thrown of balance by Pete's sudden attack, but he merely staggered a few paces back. Still holding his trumpet, it took the American a few minutes to use his free hand to pry Pete off his shirt. Once he had gotten the puppy off, he held Pete by his scruff and proceeded to survey the damage done to his shirt.

"Wow, that's one seriously whacked canine." Kei exclaimed as he looked at the rips in his shirt. "Are you sure that he's trained enough to be in your house?"

"He seemed trained enough before," Tazusa said, with none of the past second's sadness in her voice. "Put your trumpet away then let him down."

Obediently, Kei stowed his instrument back into its case and gently let Pete down. As soon as his paws touched the ground, Pete whirled around to start another attack on the tall boy. But before he could do that, Tazusa yelled, "SIT!!"

The command stopped Pete in mid-jump and he flopped on to the ground. He turned to look up at Tazusa, gave himself a shake, and after one last malignant look at Kei, planted his butt on the ground.

"See, he's trained already." Tazusa stated as she walked over to scoop him up yet again. "But you seem to really tick him off, so I better take him out to the yard."

With that, Tazusa exited the room, climbed down the stairs and walked through her living room into her yard. She put Pete on the ground and bent down so she could scratch his ears. "I'll take you back when that egomaniac leaves, alright?" After one last scratch, she went inside and left Pete alone in the yard.

Aforementioned dog lay down where he was and gave a short bark. One of the bushes rustled and a bouncing ball of fluff popped out of it. Tenshi hopped over to Pete and sat next to him. _So what's wrong with you?_

Pete snorted and replied. _There's someone in Tazusa's room who I'm not that comfortable with. You guard the gates to Heaven right?_ He asked, not taking his eyes away from Tazusa's window. At Tenshi's nod, he continued, _then you should know about the souls that get reincarnated and what happens to them._ Another nod, _Good, now what do you know about someone named Kei Morrison?_

Tenshi thought for a while then answered, _from what I know, Kei Morrison is a rising star in the world of music. He's a sixteen year old American whose mother was Japanese. He first lived in Japan, and then when he was eight they moved to America, currently he's back in Japan for some personal business._

_Personal business my foot,_ Pete grumbled, managing to keep his foul mood even when he was lying down next to the embodiment of happiness that was Tenshi. Said embodiment looked at Pete questioningly and when the reincarnate refused to answer, the heavenly guardian leaned against his furry body and promptly fell asleep. With nothing to do now, Pete grouchily followed; his last conscious seconds spent trying to think up ways to torture and humiliate Kei.

Note: Savor while you can, guys. The next one ain't comming anytime soon, so in the meantime, why dont you click that glorious review button and do your business.:D


	5. Chapter 5

Note: Hohum! I am finally, yet again, resurrected from the dead! Sorry it took so long to get this up. Oh and my writing style _may_ change throughout my fic because of exposure to dang awesome books. Sorry again.

Chapter 5:

Pete woke up in a different position then he was in when he fell asleep, specifically, in Tazusa's arms. How he got here, from his spot on the lawn with Tenshi, he didn't know. But how he got there wasn't the first thought that came into Pete's mind. At that moment, the thoughts in Pete's canine-like mind went more along the lines of: _Tazusa's holding me in her arms! It feels so nice to finally have her holding me, to actually be able to have physical contact with her. Sure it's not the same as being a human and holding each other that way, but who cares, it's better than when I couldn't even touch her as a ghost. She's holding me~!_

After his mind had registered that glorious fact, he noticed that Tazusa was lying on her bed listening to music on her headphones with her eyes closed. Then he remembered why he had been stuck in the yard in the first place, Kei Morrison, that Japanese-American, musical, twerp that had made Tazusa. The incarnate wriggled his way out of Tazusa's arms and padded around the room looking for any trace of the musically inclined male.

As soon as Pete confirmed that the alleged perpetrator was out of Tazusa's room, he hopped back on the bed and sat next to Tazusa. The ice princess smiled and slowly opened her eyes to look at Pete.

"Hey there little guy," she said cheerily. "Sorry about dumping you in the yard back there, I had to talk about a few things with the air-headed maestro for a while."

Her voice had no trace of the sadness that had moved her to tears earlier that day, whatever she had been listening to must have been good. "You know what?" she continued. "Even if Kei's a too-full-of-himself idiot, I can't complain that his music isn't good." And with that she took her headphones off and pulled them out of their port in the speakers, giving Pete full access to what she was listening to. The sound was an upbeat line of notes strung together and played on a trumpet. Pete tried to snarl, because he knew that Kei had composed this song for Tazusa, but the song wouldn't let him. It was too joy filled and uplifting for anyone to be upset while listening to it.

"I'll leave you here for a while, all right?" Tazusa said to Pete, who had his snout wrinkled in an attempt to snarl through Kei's music. "I'm going to go down and check on whatever Yoko said she'd make for dinner."

At that happy note, Tazusa left the room and closed the door on Pete. As if the sound of the door locking were a cue, Pete leaped from the depression he had made on the bed onto the windowsill. He stared at the simple latch keeping the window shut and flicked it with his paw.

_Click_

The window opened with a shove from Pete's snout. He peered over the window's edge and looked out into the yard outside. After around a minute of scanning the various bushes lining the fence, Pete barked at a particular rose bush then retreated into the room.

And suddenly Tenshi hopped in through the window, in all his fluffy furred glory. "This is some good music Tazusa's playing," it squeaked, looking around. "The guy who composed this must be really great, and kind, and handsome, and—"

"I get it, Morrison's supposed to be a good guy," Pete grumbled. "That doesn't stop me from being mad at him."

"Awww, the puppy's jealous for his master." Tenshi teased. "You shouldn't be mad at the guy who picked Tazusa up when you were gone."

"Just shut it," Pete snapped.

Tenshi just chuckled and continued talking, "So what'd you call me up here for? A friendly hello?"

"I wanted to know how I can talk to Tazusa," he said simply. "When we were back in heaven, God said he would give me a way to talk to her."

"You're going to have to wait until later on tonight." Tenshi declared.

Pete just snorted in frustration and pawed the ground restlessly. Then came the unmistakable sound of someone trudging up the stairs, followed by Yoko stepping in. Pete instinctively tried to cover Tenshi with his body, but it seemed that Yoko couldn't see heaven's guardian.

"I don't know why Tazusa couldn't come up herself to get you. Come on, Pete." She said as she held the door open for him to pass through.

Dinner went by at a boring pace. The Sakurano household didn't have any dog food so Pete ended up eating a dish of beef stew on the kitchen floor, and as he ate his stew, Pete hoped that they'd keep forgetting to buy dog food.

Finally, night came, and the Sakurano household went to bed. Pete stayed in Tazusa's room, naturally. The entire day was just so crazy and tiring that Pete forgot about how to talk to Tazusa and curled up at the foot of her bed to sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Pete dreamt a strange dream. He was on a frozen lake and he was…human. If that wasn't strange enough, it seemed like the lake he was standing on seemed familiar. Startled, Pete looked around at his surroundings.

The landscape was eerily identical to what had surrounded him in his final moments with Tazusa. The sharp mountain peaks, the snow lightly falling, dark evergreens surrounding him. There was only one thing missing from this scene, Tazusa.

Pete gritted his teeth and grasped his head in frustration. Why, of all things to dream about, did this have to appear in his subconscious? It was bad enough that he had to go through not talking to Tazusa as a canine ball of fluff in his waking hours, but now he was dealing with a definite blast from the past.

But just as he was about to pinch himself into consciousness, a voice spoke up behind him. "Pete?"

The Canadian snapped up, turned to the direction the voice came from, and felt his jaw unhinge and drop to the ground. There, standing behind him, was the girl of his dreams, _literally_. Tazusa stood there, looking dazed and confused. As if that wasn't enough to make this dream weirder, she was in her pajamas; polka dotted ones to be exact.

After a moment's worth more of silence, Tazusa shook herself out of her clueless trance and stared defiantly at Pete. Taking a deep breath she started talking, "Y'know, even if I know that you're only a dream version of Pete, it's the closest I know I'll ever get to him again…until I die of course."

And through the surreal-ness of it all, Pete managed to say something highly intellectual and befitting to the situation: "Umm…er…yah."

If it was possible, Tazusa's face went up a notch on its confused scale. "You never used to answer me before. Usually you just stand there, just out of reach."

Now, Pete knew that this meant a few things. One, Tazusa had been dreaming of him (or at least dream Tazusa said so). Two, this may just be the "method of communication" that God had mentioned. Or the third option, he was just so in need for a way to communicate with her that his subconscious had whipped up this sap fest to placate him.

Taking his chance, Pete took the chance to say something else, other than Caveman Code. "Tazusa, how have you been?"

Clearly accepting this as just another out of whacked dream, Tazusa rattled on about life. "Kei's just made another one of his supposed masterpieces, there's a competition I'm planning to use it for, oh and yea, I got a dog that looks just like you, seems like God's slapping me with a memento of my time with you."

Pete couldn't help but marvel at this perfect, opportune, moment. He cleared his mind and started asking another question, "Hey, Tazusa, meet anyone new while I was gone?"

But before Tazusa had gotten the chance to answer, Pete's eyelids snapped open and he was jolted back into the familiar scene of Tazusa's bed room.

It took Pete a while to fully remember all that had transpired in his dream. And when he finally did, a flurry of thoughts stormed around in his mind.

_Was that all just my own dream? Or had Tazusa really been in there? Was this really God's method of communication? Am I just going crazy from being so close to her? _And then the big question, _Why, was fate so cruel?!_

He just _had_ to wake up before Tazusa could answer the question. He just _had_ to wake up right after he had asked. Then it dawned on him that the first thing he should have told Tazusa that he was her new dog.

If you've ever been in a dream, which you most probably have, then you'd know that you don't exactly think logically in one. This, coupled with the shock of seeing Tazusa in his and seeing himself human again, was enough to knock common sense right off Pete's priorities in DreamWorld.

While he was pondering, Tazusa had woken up. She looke straight at Pete and stated, "I just had the weirdest dream, Pete, and you were in it."

Note: I actually found the dream thing REAL predictable. But something un-predictable's coming next chapter, coz suprise, I actually know what's gonna happen in it :D so it might actually come out with in a week. Emphasis on the might though.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

Pete was in a very sullen mood that morning at breakfast (eggs, toast, and salad, sans tomato of course). Tazusa seemed to pass the dream off as just a side effect of last night's Beef Yoko Surprise. But Pete knew otherwise, tele-dreaming seemed extremely God-like, he'd have to make sure with Tenshi though. Since, how other way are you going to let a reincarnated Canadian puppy talk to his Japanese love?

Now, while Pete was having his epiphany on communication, Coach was mentioning something very grave and important. "Tazusa, you should take Pete to the vet to get fixed."

Pete's head shot up automatically. "_Fixed?! I can't get FIXED! _There's really no need to get me fixed, I mean I'm just a puppy! And the only reason you get dogs fixed is so that they won't…um, be with uhhh, girl dogs! And no way in heck am I into GIRL DOGS!"

This of course, came out as a series of high-pitched whines. Tazusa though, noticed Pete's loud complaint and looked at him. "You know, it's almost as if he can understand what getting fixed means. But don't we need to give him shots too?"

And with this, Pete howled. If you're expecting a wistful crescendo, like that of a wolf, then you're sorely mistaken. That sound may have come out of a wolf pup's mouth, but Pete was currently a Golden Retriever. Thus, his howl came off as a continuous string of hollowed out squeaks.

But the Sakurano household just stared at Pete. For a full minute, Pete sat there howling his woes into the world, until Coach said something. "I think there really is something wrong with him. With all his howling maybe I hit him harder than I thought yesterday."

This shut Pete up for the rest of the morning. Everything he was doing seemed to be getting him closer and closed to an appointment with the vet. When he had been human, Pete had despised the doctor's long pointed needles. That's why they invented pills right? To get stuff into people. Why, then would doctors feel the need to invent injections?

The canine incarnate was left to ponder on this as the rest of the family got up and did their business. It was a Saturday, Yoko was on chore duty, and Tazusa was free. Free to take Pete to the vet.

Coach was calling someone on the phone, "Hello, this is Yuji Takashima. Yes, I'd like to make an appointment with Dr. Miyu Yukino? Yes, this is her Coach of a fiancé. Yes, I finally got a dog. Yea, I DO PLAN ON GETTING IT FIXED. Well I'm calling right now!"

Yoko and Tazusa were trying to keep themselves from laughing. "I love it when Miyu-san's secretary does that to Coach." Yoko said with the air of a saddist. "Well, I better go and wash the dishes."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Now Pete was walking on a makeshift leash. Makeshift, as in a jump rope with one of the plastic things on the end cut off, made into a noose. So from sullen, Pete's mood turned to acute apprehension.

He and Tazusa were taking a short walk to the vet's clinic. Coincidentally, the Coach's girlfriend was a vet (probably the reason Coach had known what Pete had been). As a ghost, Pete didn't have to walk. He floated or hovered. As a human, he walked like any other human did, on two legs. As a dog, he had to trot. And trotting, to what was supposed to be a short walk, was definitely NOT a SHORT walk.

_I don't know how much more of this I can take,_ Pete thought to himself as Tazusa stopped at a pedestrian lane to cross. _This new dog's body's going to take a while to get used to. At least I don't need to wear a coat during winter….what am I saying I have to wear a coat every season now! Arghh, stupid dog body, I'm even panting! Stupid lack of sweat glands._

"Heh, new mutt, more trouble."

Pete snapped out of his rant to look for whoever had said that. Nobody seemed to have said anything, so he passed it off as a figment of his imagination.

"Mutt! You with the rope on neck! No pretend you no see!," the voice said again.

"Ok, who's saying that?!" Pete yipped, looking up at all the faces of the people waiting to cross.

"Dumb mutt, look down."

So Pete looked down, to see himself face to face with a tabby cat, sitting at its owners feet with a small harness around its chest. "You dogs all the same," it mewed in a female voice. "Humans make you think that you are smart, then you not even able to see cat when she right in front of you!"

"Um, e-e-excuse me," Pete stammered. "Did you just talk to me?"

The cat hissed, stood up and followed her owner as the people started moving, "Stuck up mutt!" she shouted over her shoulder.

"Pete! Come on, let's get moving." Tazusa said, tugging on the jump rope. "I know you don't want to go to the vet, but it's for your own good." When Pete didn't budge, Tazusa sighed and gripped Pete's scruff to lift him up.

Pete didn't struggle, he couldn't do anything anyway, his body couldn't move while Tazusa was holding him from the scruff and his mind was still processing the talking cat.

_It kind of makes sense that cat's can talk if I'm a dog and I can talk, well I don't exactly talk, I think. Is that the reason why the cat couldn't talk in straight sentences? Because I'm a reincarnate and I have a human mind? Arghh, where's Tenshi when you need him!?_

And as if on cue, the white puffball fell from the sky like the blessing from heaven he was. "You whined?" it said as it hovered just over Tazusa's shoulder.

"Yea, I did. Would you mind telling me why there are talking cats roaming the city?"

"Well, to you it isn't just talking cats."

"What do you mean it isn't just talking cats?"

"It'll be a lot clearer when you get to the vet's office." And with that, Tenshi fluttered with its wings for a bit, before it vanished.

_Grrr, useless puffball. Wait a minute, if he came when I thought about him…oh dang, can he read minds?! This is bad, hmm, I shouldn't think badly about him if he can do that._

And in all finality, Tazusa reached the pet clinic.

Walking up to the secretary she let Pete back on the ground and spoke, "Excuse me, I'm here for an appointment with Dr. Miyu."

"Ahh, Tazusa, nice to see you again." The receptionist said in an amused tone. "So is your coach here to distract Dr. Miyu again?"

"Nope, it's just me and Pete over here," Tazusa replied, gesturing to the golden lump of fur at her feet.

"And I'm assuming that this is the dog that Yuji ran over?"

Tazusa, the secretary, and Pete turned to look at the lady that had said that. She was a tall Japanese girl, with chocolate brown hair and slightly tanned skin, somehow she looked familiar to Pete. Tazusa seemed to know her, "Yep, Coach reckons that this guy's a six month old Golden Retriever."

"Well he was right about the breed," Mystery Lady said. "But that silly fiancé of mine got the age wrong. This guy's four months old at most!"

_Oh, yea! This is the Coach's fiancé. I remember she was the lady Coach brought home on that day when Tazusa thought that everyone had been in love with her._ Pete thought, _so she's a vet, huh? I never really thought much about her, well neither did Tazusa back then. Wait a minute, so this is the lady that's going to fix me?_

Pete let out a low whine when he finally saw the white coat draped on Dr. Miyu's arm. Tazusa picked him up and held him at arms length. "It's going to be OK, little guy. Don't worry, Dr. Miyu's a great vet. Now, let's get into the waiting are so we can wait our turn."

Now, one of the few upsides of being a puppy is that you look cute. So Pete let his forelegs, hind legs and tail droop, he laid his floppy ears back and he opened his eyes as wide as they would go.

"Don't look at me like that, Pete." Tazusa crooned. "This is all for you, so don't try to use puppy dog eyes on me!"

So the intrepid duo walked into the waiting room. As soon as the door opened, Pete was assaulted by a wave of sounds. Dogs barking, cats hissing, birds chirping, there was even a monkey chattering away on its owners head. And the worst part was, he could understand them.

"No, not want." The monkey was hugging its owner's arm as they walked towards another door. "Master, I not want to go to white coat. White coat always make strange sleep thing. Sleep thing make me slow, make me no move."

"Treat! Treat! Treat!" A puppy was yipping at a young boy. "Give me treat!"

"Irritating, noise, stupid kits." An old tri-colored cat was looking crossly at the rest of the occupants of the room.

Pete felt like he was in a mall, where all of the voices were jumbled up into a chorus-like hum. But what irked him was, that none of the people's mouths were moving, it was all animal.

Tazusa was about to sit down when someone called for her. "Hey, Tazusa! Fancy seeing you here."

Pete growled, even only meeting the guy once, he'd know that irritating voice anywhere. So from his perch in Tazusa's folded arms, he stared sordidly at Kei Morrison.

"I'm getting Pete his shots." Tazusa stated. "And I'm getting him fixed."

Even Pete's deep determination to stare Kei to death couldn't stop him from shuddering at the sound of the F-word. He whined once again and someone made a comment on this, "So, skater girl finally got a pet."

Pete looked around once again to see who had said that, it had to be a human, animals didn't talk that way. He looked everywhere but couldn't see whoever had said that, then he heard snickering. "So you heard me, huh?"

Now, Pete tried to track where the voice had come from, then he locked eyes with a tiny brown bird nestled in Kei's messy hair. He growled and barked at it, "You think I can't get you there? All I have to do is tackle your owner to the ground and maul him instead!"

The bird stopped snickering. Then Pete realized what had just happened. He had just had a straight conversation with another animal. From what he had seen with the other animals, they certainly weren't capable of talking with correct diction and grammar. Only he had, so far, spoken like a human would have, and that was only because he was a reincarnate. But most reincarnates had their memories wiped.

"Anyway, Tazusa I've got to go. I'm going home to record more music." Kei said happily.

"Alright, see ya."

And for a brief moment, the fact that the tiny bird on Kei's shoulder had talked like a human, meaning it was a reincarnate, almost made Pete forget about his appointment with the vet. Almost.

Note: Tenshi is now my avatar! Check my profile if you wanna know how it looks like. The pic's kind of cut off at the top though. R&R!


	7. Chapter 7

Note: And I'm back! After a one month break. I actually had this chapter planned out right after the last one, but school came up, so yea. Oh well, on to the story! (Btw, if anyone's wondering if Pete's become more self-centered, dying does that to people.)

Chapter 7:

It was a beautiful day, the sidewalks were clear of any snow and the sun was out and shining. Tazusa stepped out of the vet's clinic with a smile on her face and looking forward to whatever she'd decide to do next. But her puppy love following right behind was in a very, very different mood.

Pete was in a state of shock, not only had he found another possible reincarnate like him, he had just been changed in a way no male should be…

"Hey, Pete, where do you think we should go next?" Tazusa asked. "It's a great day, we should go somewhere other than home."

The familiarity of this question was enough to jar Pete out of his shock. He had asked Tazusa the same thing when they had been out on their first and only date. The memory of the precious moments cheered him up and Pete decided to get over the…incident. He pulled at the leash Dr. Miyu had given them and led Tazusa to the park.

Without an appointment to keep, the duo was walking at a much more relaxed pace. Tazusa was bouncing a bit while she walked, something Pete knew meant she was feeling extremely light-hearted at the moment. Pete's ears perked up to pick up a tune he knew all too well coming from Tazusa's mouth.

At first, he had thought it was the irritating happy song Kei had composed. But as it went on, he realized that it was the song he had told Tazusa to use in her `Waitress on Ice' routine. If they had ever had a song, this would be it.

_She still remembers…_Pete thought, adding a bounce in his trot and a wag in his tail. _Who cares about what happened a while ago in the…office. Live in the present and not in the past. I'm with Tazusa and that's what matters, nothing can ruin this moment._

"Hey, look Pete! It's Kei!" Tazusa said enthusiastically.

"Nothing except that." Pete growled.

Kei was in the center of the park, wit a small crowd gathered around him. There was a keyboard set up in front of him and he was playing a piece. Pete knew the song, it was a well known tune. What was weird about this scene was the voice superimposing lyrics to it.

**(to the tune of, The Entertainer, By: Scott Joplin)**

_Stop what you're doing,_

_Gather around now,_

_Drop all your worries_

_And sit back!_

_Time to run and jump and play,_

_And let our music flow into your heart._

_When you're living life today,_

_Laughter and song become an art!_

_So if you're being kicked like dirt,_

_Just listen and do what I say,_

_look up to the sky,_

_Know that god is nearby,_

_Let your heart fly,_

_Then just smile._

(.com/watch?v=jcznaE2BDz0)

Kei stopped his impromptu recital short when he saw Tazusa waving at him. He looked at the small crowd around him and bowed, "Sorry, folks! I have some personal business to attend to."

"Hey, Kei!" Tazusa called, walking towards the Caucasian-Asian maestro as the crowd dissipitated. "I thought you were going home to record."

"I decided to earn some cash first." Kei answered. "Maya and I get great business here. Don't we, Maya?" When Kei said the last sentence, he looked up into the branches of the tree above him, to see the brown bird that had been with him at the vet's clinic. Now that she was in the sun, Pete saw that she had a darker shade of brown on her tail and wings, and a white neck and belly.

"I still don't know how she knows to sing to your music with out being trained." Tazusa wondered out loud.

"She's just smart, I guess." Kei said, as the bird, presumably Maya, fluttered onto his shoulder. "I'm lucky to have found her wounded on my window sill. It's a cold day, do you want to get some hot chocolate? I'm itching to spend some of the money we made today."

"Sure," Tazusa answered smiling. "Oh look, Maya seems to like Pete. She's flown over to his back."

So as the two humans walked peaceably along, the two incarnates started a heated Q&A.

"You're a reincarnate, aren't you?" the bird, Maya, asked.

"And so are you." Pete replied as-a-matter-of-factly.

"It's nice to have someone who can answer in complete sentences," she commented. "Skater girl's important to you?"

"Extremely. Music boy means something to you?"

"I'd cross the world for him, which, in theory, I have."

"How long have you been back on Earth?"

"Somewhere over six months, you?"

"Just came back yesterday. So you make lyrics for Music boy's songs?"

"I've been doing it since I was human."

"Ahh, you were a close friend of his huh?"

"Yea, and you're Skater girl's…"

Pete thought for a while before he answered, what was he to Tazusa? "Boyfriend." He said finally. They had kissed, it hadn't been physical but it was still a kiss, and they loved each other, that was enough, wasn't it?

"How'd you meet? Kei and I were childhood friends." Maya continued.

"We were… stuck together for a while."

Maya looked at him curiously, "What was your name again?"

"Pete Pumps." He answered automatically.

All of a sudden Maya started trilling out a shrill high note, it kept fluctuating, going from soft to loud and back to soft. Pete stopped walking and looked to his back, was the tiny bird having some kind of an attack?

After a few moments of confusion, Pete realized that Maya was laughing. "You're the poor sap who got stuck on Earth for a hundred days!" She chirped. "No wonder your eyes seemed familiar!"

"My eyes?" Pete asked.

"They're the only part of your soul that doesn't change when you're reborn." The tiny bird replied, her own amber eyes sparkling with amusement. "You don't know how many people were watching you from heaven the entire time you were stuck with Skater girl. You were heaven's highest rated soap opera!"

Pete grumbled and continued walking. He knew that the entire Heavenly Realms had watched him struggle, adjust and finally fall in love with Tazusa. The first day he'd been back he had been shocked to find out that everyone already knew who he was. It had been frustrating to hear questions like, "What was it like?" over and over again.

"So what's your story?" Pete barked out, trying to hide a blush he didn't know couldn't be seen through his fur. "I'm assuming you know mine." Aside from averting attention from his hundred day stay with Tazusa, Pete wanted to know why Maya had kept her memories. He hadn't thought that there would be another reincarnate like him, who had kept the past live's memories and been sent to live with someone who was close to them.

Maya didn't reply for a while. Pete wondered if she hadn't heard him. Their conversation had been light-hearted and honest, what had made her stop now?

Before he could find out, something white and fluffy dropped from the sky, onto his back.

"Pete!" Tenshi squeaked. "Where did you find this bird?!"

"She's with Music boy." Pete said as he stopped to look at his back. To his horror, he saw that Tenshi had flattened Maya onto his back, she was being crushed by it. "Tenshi! What're you doing?!"

"Quiet, Pete." The quivering ball of fluff ordered. "This girl's a Fallen."

"A what?" Pete was beginning to feel very annoyed at the many things he didn't know nowadays.

"She's escaped from heaven to be with Kei. I'd know, I know where all of the souls go. She escaped before you came back to Heaven." Tenshi looked down at Maya and bristled. "How'd you get down here?"

"I gave something up, ok?!" Maya shrieked. "Now can you get off me!"

"What, exactly did you sacrifice?" Tenshi pressed on, not budging an inch.

Maya looked sullenly at Kei as he bought a hot chocolate for Tazusa. "I gave up his love…"

Now this statement was enough to shock Tenshi into silence. By this time, Pete was really irritated at the pair. His neck was now hurting, of all the places to hold a heated questioning, it had to be his back. But Maya's statement had shocked him too, he stopped walking and sat, letting Tenshi roll off his back and freeing Maya.

The tiny brown bird fluttered to her owner and perched on his shoulder, just as he was saying good-bye to Tazusa.

"I'm going back to street performing," Kei said cheerfully. "I've got to make up for what I've spent now!"

Tazusa laughed and said her good-byes to her musically inclined friend. She walked towards her puppy and picked Pete up.

"Come on, Petey boy, let's go home."

As Tazusa carried Pete home, Kei started playing and Maya started singing again. Pete listened to their song and was surprised to feel emotions welling up from deep inside him, feelings that he'd had ever since that fateful day on Torino's lake. Now he knew someone else on this Earth was suffering along with him. Pete let out a low whine and let Maya's lyrics flow into him.

**(To the tune of, Turnabout Sisters Ballad, By: CAPCOM)**

_I will always be_

_Watching over your shoulder_

_No sea or mountain can try to separate us_

_Fate has given hope for a chance to be together_

_Our bond will last from now 'til forever_

_No Way…_

_Will these ties ever break_

_No Way…_

_Will the memories fade away_

_All the times together_

_Remain with me forever_

_No matter what may happen_

_Even if God takes me back_

_Our paths will cross through Heaven and Earth_

_In your darkest day I will be by your side_

_You can count on me to give you light…_

(.com/watch?v=qVMpN7jb-lA)

Note: Oh! You'll notice that there are youtube links at the end of each song. If you haven't figured out yet, they'll give you the tune of the songs that Maya's singing to. I plan to do this to a lot of songs, be it classical or game theme, it's one of the reasongs I created Maya. Until next chappie, keep reviewing! Oh yea, credit to my friend 1215rascal for inspiring me to write these lyrics in the first place (not to mention writing a part of it herself, check her out, she does Harvest moon and Phoenix Wright)

~tsubasa95


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

Now with all the revelations Pete had been having he felt that nothing would faze him anymore. He'd been reincarnated, reunited with his love, turned into a quadruped and given the power to apparently hop into Tazusa's dreams. Pete Pumps was ready for anything…

"Hey, Petey boy let's go shopping!"

…anything but that.

After learning about Maya Pete just wanted sometime alone with Tenshi to question the thing. How the heck was he supposed to be doing that when Tazusa was taking him to a shopping district?!

For some reason Tenshi had left them once they exited the park. It fluttered away under the pretense of 'letting some new souls into heaven', but Pete thought that this was too coincidental. _So Tenshi just HAD to leave right when it had found out about Maya, just perfect,_ Pete thought.

Tazusa was pulling his jump rope leash tighter and tighter. They had entered a very busy street and now Pete could only venture a foot away from his owner before the rope yanked him back. He trotted grumpily at the ice princess' heels, too sullen to bother to look at the surroundings, as his mind focused on what Maya had said.

"_I gave up his love."_ Her strange statement kept replaying over and over in Pete's mind. How do you give up someone's love? Did Kei forget everything about Maya? And how torn must Maya have felt to resort to doing that? Why did she even bother getting back to Earth if it meant that she'd be forgotten?

"Let's get you a collar." Tazusa hummed absentmindedly. "You know, you remind me of someone I loved, Pete."

At this, Pete was immediately snapped out of his daze as he craned his head back to look up at the former stone-hearted skater. Her eyes were glazed over with a look that he'd seen before; it was the same look he got when he thought about her. He gave an inquisitive whine as Tazusa stopped walking. When she didn't respond he yipped at her and nibbled at her socks.

"Oh," Tazusa gasped. She looked around for a while, as if she was wondering where she was, then she shook her head and took a deep breath. "Sorry about that Pete. Anyway, like I was saying, you make me think of someone I loved once. He had to go away, but I'm sure that wherever he is, he's waiting for me to come and join him."

"Nope, some of your stubbornness must have rubbed off on me because I got to impatient and came to you instead." Pete replied, painfully aware that all she heard were yaps and barks.

"He came from a place called Canada," Tazusa continued. "You see, they've got a red flag over there, so I'm thinking I should get you a red collar. Does that sound good to you?"

"Yeap!" Pete barked happily, swinging his tail back and forth in an involuntary wag.

Tazusa smiled and walked him into a pet store.

If you think a pet store's smelly when you sniff at it with a human nose, try it with one that's five to ten times stronger, for this is what Pete was now experiencing. His nose tingled as it adjusted to the myriad of smells, so much so that his mind got muddled up with trying to sort through them. Therefore he didn't know how to react once a curious Chihuahua sniffed his fanny.

"Hey!" Pete shrieked, jumping a foot into the air (and that's impressive when you're barely a foot tall). Once he landed his legs got snared in his already-too-short leash and fell muzzle-first onto the hard, unforgiving floor. Groaning he got up and growled at the offensive Chihuahua. "What the heck was that for?"

"Heh?" it squeaked. "What I do?"

Peering at its dog tag Pete saw its name and deduced that it was actually a she, all the more embarrassing. "So, Rica," Pete said, mentioning the name engraved onto the tag. "Would you please tell me why you were sniffing my but?"

"What you mean?" she asked. "I just greet you. Then you jump high and fall. What wrong with you? And how you know who I am?"

"I read your dog tag." Pete stated. "And what do you mean you greeted me?"

"How many moons do you have? You old enough to know how to greet dogs." Then the tiny Chihuahua realized something. "You know to read? My master teach me that once, very hard. How you know to read and not to greet? Very strange pup."

"Rica!" called a voice from across the room.

"Bye bye strange pup." Rica yipped, before turning tail and racing over to her owner, who scooped her up and walked over to the counter where Tazusa was waiting.

"Sorry for that miss," the salesman chided. "Rica over here is supposed to be resting in the back room. Could I just place her there before I fetch your items?"

"Sure," Tazusa said. "But be quick about it."

The salesman nodded before dashing into a door hidden from behind the counter. He returned a few minutes later with a small wooden box and a bright red collar. Pete was plopped onto the countertop so Tazusa could fasten the leather strap around his neck. Once it was on Pete scratched at with his hind leg, then immediately stopped when he realized what he was doing. _Come on Pete! You're not really a dog; you're just in the body of one._ At least that's what he kept thinking to himself.

"Miss, you wanted this design for the tag?" the storeowner asked, revealing the content of the box.

He opened it up to hold out a shining silver medal, the kind pilots receive once they earn the right to fly in the sky. It was a simple circular disc with wings jutting out of its sides and a cross embossed on its surface. Engraved on it in neat print was his name, and then below it was a small quote scrawled in loopy cursive;

_We are all connected through the sky._

_Love will wait till your wings can fly_

Tazusa paid the salesman and exited the store with Pete in her arms. "Come on Petey boy, let's go get you groomed."

But not even this daunting thought was enough to dent the well of emotion that Pete was feeling at the moment…or so he thought.

Pete was yanked out of his stupor as his paw pads touched the cold tiles of the salon. After the rough cement road this was a welcome change, _I never thought I'd miss shoes so much,_ he thought to himself idly. Looking around he saw that they were in a plain white-walled lobby. Tazusa was leading him to a tall counter where she stopped to talk to a lady who must have been the receptionist.

"Hello, I'd like to have my puppy groomed?"

Pete groaned and busied himself with inspecting the lobby more. A lounge was nestled in the opposite corner of the room, a set of colorless couches that practically blended into the walls. Not the best idea because now whoever tried to sit on them would look like they were sitting on air. And for some reason, no one was getting their pet groomed in the White Wonderland Grooming Salon. _I wonder why? _Pete asked himself.

A pair of hands cupped themselves around Pete's middle section as he was lifted onto the counter. From this high vantage point the puppy could see that the entire room was white, not just the furniture and the walls but the tiles, ceiling and lights were white too. The only color in the room came from the glass doors leading outside and a few gurgling fountains.

"And what's your name, puppy?" the receptionist asked.

"Pete," Tazusa answered for him as he yipped an affirmative. "He's going to have a bath, a haircut and a makeover."

Pete whined as he rose on his hind paws and tried to beg at Tazusa. "Tazusa, if you love me you won't do this," he said, forgetting for a while that she couldn't understand a word he was saying.

Tazusa paid him no attention and thrust Pete into the receptionist's open arms. He squirmed in the stranger's arms as Tazusa walked away. "I'll be back when you're done," she waved. "So be a good boy and listen to the groomers!"

With a final good-bye she left through the doors and into the beautiful colorful outside world. "COME BACK!!" Pete whined. He squirmed until he got a good look at the receptionist that held him prisoner…his ears pressed themselves flat against his skull as his tail swished between his legs.

And even if you didn't know that in dog body language that meant that Pete was scared, you'd still see the apparent fear in his eyes. The lady was dressed entirely in white; from alabaster skin to French tipped nails the darkest thing she had on her were her dark, dark brown eyes.

Human Pete would have screamed like a girl at the freakishness of this all.

Ghost Pete would have thanked god that he was already dead.

Puppy Pete happened to have peed himself.

"I can understand if you're scared," the receptionist said in a sickeningly sweet voice. "You're mama left you here all alone. Don't worry; you'll make a bunch of new friends here!"

And with that Pete was brought into a long corridor with, you guessed it, white walls. The receptionist turned left, then right, then left and another left and kept turning until Pete was dizzy, until finally they arrived in a large surprisingly white room to which Pete was unceremoniously dumped in.

He instinctively shook his fur as the occupants of the room gathered around him. When he looked up he saw a _very_ large dog looming over him, maybe ten times his size, possibly bigger.

Human Pete: Use opposable thumbs to turn doorknob and escape.

Ghost Pete: Float away unharmed.

Puppy Pete: Whimper, tuck tail between legs and pee again.


End file.
